BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The future of the Big East Conference is uncertain, and with the NCAA landscape continuing to shift over the past two years, Rutgers is looking to keep their options open.

Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti said that Rutgers officials were studying the merits of leaving the Big East over the weekend. According to Scarlet Scuttlebutt, their plan included accepting any invitation that might be extended to join the ACC or the Big Ten.

A high-ranking college official said the Scarlet Knights would accept the first good offer by the Big Ten, the schools preference, or the Atlantic Coast Conference.

"That seems to be what everyone is doing (taking the first good offer), and I don't think Rutgers would be any different," he told The Star-Ledger.

According to ESPN, Pitt and Syracuse have been accepted as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, extending the league's membership to 14 schools.

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Meanwhile, Texas A&M is trying to join the Southeast Conference, and Connecticut also wants to become a member of the ACC. The ACC has said Rutgers would be a possibility if the league wants to expand to 16 teams.

NJ.com reported that Rutgers has been speaking with the Big Ten again. They had been in talks last summer, but the Big Ten only added Nebraska.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford said, according to the International Business Times, that his league was "not philosophically opposed" to expanding to 16 teams.

Big East bylaws require schools to pay a $5 million exit fee and give 27 months notice before leaving, but it has options for teams wanting to withdraw. The Big East has six football schools remaining.